1974: "Eres tu" by Mocedades became a favorite for people learning Spanish

"Eres tu" was the best thing that ever happened to Spanish class teachers.  

In other words, what could be better than a pop song in Spanish that every student wanted to learn?

Mocedades from Spain hit US radio this month and the results were a Top 10 hit called "Eres tu".    It was a great pop song.

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1974: Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford selected to the Hall of Fame

Two great Yankees were selected to the Hall of Fame on this day in 1974.

Mickey Mantle was one of the great power hitters in history:   .298 career batting average, 536 HR and 1,509 RBI.   He was also a 3-time MVP and played in 12 World Series.   He had a career .421 On Base Average.

Whitey Ford was one of the best lefthanders in major league history:  236 wins, 156 complete games and a 2.75 career ERA.   He played in 11 World Series and won 10 games.

Mantle and Ford were part of the great Yankee teams that dominated baseball from 1949-64.   They were great teammates and it was great to see them go into the Hall of Fame together.

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1973: Top 10 this week WABC radio in New York

  1. The Most Beautiful Girl - Charlie Rich (Epic)
  2. Top of the World - The Carpenters (A&M)                     
  3. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John (MCA)                
  4. Just You 'n' Me - Chicago (Columbia)                        
  5. Time In a Bottle - Jim Croce (ABC)                          
  6. Hello It's Me - Todd Rundgren (Bearsville)                  
  7. Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) - Helen Reddy (Capitol)     
  8. The Love I Lost -                                            
             Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes (Philadelphia Int.)  
  9. The Joker - The Steve Miller Band (Capitol)                 
 10. Photograph - Ringo Starr (Apple)  

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1963: President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas

As a kid in Cuba, I sat with my father and watched Fidel Castro on Cuban TV talk about the Kennedy assassination.  I don't remember what he said but my dad told me later that Castro was very nervous.  I guess that he felt that President Johnson would use the assassination to correct the mistake of The Bay of Pigs.  A few days later, I heard my father and some of his friends say the same thing over a little Cuban coffee and cigars.   

It was a very tense time in Cuba because the Castro regime was locking up dissidents, such as my father's cousin Dr. Ignacio Segurola who spent 14 years in prison without a trial.   My mother told me recently that she was afraid that my own father would be picked up because he refused to take a job with the newly created national bank that replaced all of the privately owned banks expropriated (or as they say "nationalized") during that time.

Over time, I've heard all of the conspiracy theories, watched a few documentaries and even that idiotic Oliver Stone JFK movie that came out in 1991.   

Can we finally call it?  President JFK was killed by a crazy guy who was hanging around with communists and supporting the Castro dictatorship in Cuba.

Yes, there were angry right-wingers in Dallas.  Some of them behaved poorly.  However, do you think that one of these groups would have "contracted" a head case like Oswald to kill anybody?.  My guess is that most of these right wing groups would have given Oswald a bloody lip for his communist ideas if they ever had a chance to run into him. 

A few years ago, James Piereson put the nail in all of the conspiracies, especially the nonsense that right wingers in Dallas or the "let's get into Vietnam" military industrial complex.

Mr Piereson tells us about Oswald, the communist who killed the president of the US:

"The facts are that President Kennedy was a martyr in the Cold War struggle against communism. The assassin was a communist and not a bigot or a right-winger. Oswald defected from the U.S. to the Soviet Union in 1959, vowing when he did so that he could no longer live under a capitalist system. He returned to the U.S. with his Russian wife in 1962, disappointed with life under Soviet communism but without giving up his Marxist beliefs or his hatred of the U.S. By 1963, Oswald had transferred his political allegiance to Castro's communist regime in Cuba.  

In April 1963, Oswald attempted to shoot Edwin Walker, a retired U.S. Army general, as he sat at a desk in his dining room. Walker was the head of the Dallas chapter of the John Birch Society and a figure then in the news because of his opposition to school integration and his demand that the Castro regime be overthrown. The rifle Oswald used in the attempt at Walker's life was the one he used to shoot Kennedy.  

Dallas police would not identify Oswald as Walker's would-be assassin until after the assassination of Kennedy, but Oswald, fearful that he would be identified for the Walker shooting, fled Dallas for New Orleans. 

In June 1963 he established a local chapter of Fair Play for Cuba, a national organization dedicated to gaining diplomatic recognition for Castro's regime. Oswald was filmed by a local television station in New Orleans circulating leaflets on behalf of the Castro government and was jailed briefly following a street altercation with anti-Castro Cubans. Soon thereafter he appeared on a local television program to debate U.S. policy toward Cuba.  

In late September, Oswald left New Orleans to travel to Mexico City in pursuit of a visa that would permit him to travel to Cuba and then to the Soviet Union. As documented in the Warren Commission Report, he took along a dossier of news clippings on his pro-Castro activities to establish his revolutionary bona fides with personnel at the Cuban and Soviet embassies in the city. 

Oswald returned to Dallas empty-handed after being told that his application would take months to process. He was still waiting on his application six weeks later when he read that President Kennedy's forthcoming visit to Texas would include a motorcade through downtown Dallas and past the building where he worked.  

The assassin's motives for shooting Kennedy were undoubtedly linked to a wish to interfere with the president's campaign to overthrow Castro's government. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy pledged to abandon efforts to overthrow Castro's regime by force. But the war of words between the two governments continued, and so did clandestine plots by the Kennedy administration to eliminate Castro by assassination."

Last, but not least, I have spoken to Cubans living in New Orleans in 1962-63 who got into heated arguments with Oswald over Cuba.  They will attest to the fact that Oswald was a "Castro loving communist," or exactly the kind of jerk who would kill the president of the US.

The right did not kill JFK.  The bloody communist did!

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1864: President Lincoln was reelected!

On this day in 1864, President Lincoln was reelected in the middle of the US Civil War.   

As people voted, General Sherman's troops were running around the South and winning battles.  Lincoln carried all but three states (Kentucky, New Jersey, and Delaware), and won 55 percent of the vote.   He won 212 electoral votes to McCellan’s 21.    

On one hand, it was a good victory for President Lincoln.  On the other hand, it was not a national election since the South did not participate.

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1973: Ferguson Jenkins traded to Rangers for a young Bill Madlock

Who remember this?   On this day in 1973, the Cubs traded 6-time 20-game winner Ferguson Jenkins to the Rangers for third baseman Bill Madlock and utility man Vic Harris.     

Jenkins won 25 games for a very young Texas team that challenged Oakland for the AL West title in 1974.   

He won 284 with a 3.34 ERA and 267 complete games over 19 seasons.    Jenkins was selected to The Hall of Fame in 1991.

On the other hand, Madlock went on to have a great career: .305 average and 2,008 hits in 15 seasons.  He won 4 batting titles, 2 in Chicago and 2 in Pittsburgh.

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1901: President McKinley died on this day

On this day in 1901, President William McKinley died from gun shots.    During the 2016 election, Karl Rove often brought up the 1896 election and even wrote a book about it.

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May 15, 1973: Remembering the 1st of Nolan Ryan's 7 no-hitters

On this day in 1973, Nolan Ryan threw the first of his 7 no-hitters.   He beat KC with 12 Ks. 

We know the rest of history.   He pitched another no-hitter in 1973, 1974 and 1975.  He pitched #5 in 1981, # 6 in 1990 and # 7 in 1991.

I had the good fortune of listening to # 5 on the radio (it was on a Sunday afternoon against Baltimore) and catching # 7 with the late Mark Holtz calling strike three on Roberto Alomar to end the game.

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1889: Future President Herbert Hoover married Lou Henry

On this day in day in 1889, future President Herbert Hoover married Lou Henry.   

The couple met in Stanford University and traveled extensively during their marriage.   

Hoover was elected in 1928 after a very successful public and private career.  Mrs. Hoover was an author, wrote articles, spoke five languages and received eight honorary degrees in her lifetime.

President Hoover lost his reelection to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.   After that, former President Hoover worked on many projects including developing a very good friendship with President Truman.

He died in 1964 and Mrs. Hoover in 1944.

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1973: The cease fire started in Vietnam

On this day in 1973, the Vietnam War cease fire went into effect.    

The fighting did not stop because both sides accused the other of violations.   The "cease fire" did allow the US to finish its mission and get the POW's out of North Vietnam.

The "cease fire" quickly fell apart in late 1974 when the North invaded much of the South without consequences.    In other words, the US did not use its air power to support the South.

South Vietnam collapsed in May 1975.   Wonder who would have believed that on this day in 1973?

Years later, President Nixon wrote a great book about the war and how it ended:

 

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